Genre Studies Unit- IV Farce

 

Farce

            Farce is a literary genre and type of comedy that make use of highly exaggerated and funny situation aimed at entertaining the audience. It is a subcategory of dramatic comedy, which is different from other forms of comedy as it only aims at making the audience laugh.

            Farce, a comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and violent horseplay. The farce is a dramatic work designed solely to produce laughter.

In a nutshell, a funny drama for theatre full of ridiculous situations.

The term “farce” is derived from the French word “farcire” means “to stuff”.

It is a subgenre of comedy in English Drama, popular during the Elizabethan Age (1558-1603). It is considered the low type of comedy. It is low quality of comedy.

The first popular farce was The Rehearsal by the Duke of Buckingham.

Functions of farce

·         The basic purpose of a farcical comedy is to evoke laughter.

·         It uses elements like physical humour, deliberate absurdity just to make people laugh.

·         We usually find farces in theatre, films and sometimes in other literary works too.

Examples of Farce

The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar wilde)

            The most absurd things is that Miss Prism commits a blunder by leaving her manuscript in the pram, and puts her child into her handbag.

The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)

            The play contains the stereotype characters that are typically farcical in nature, such as Katherine. Although Kate is a stereotype and a boisterous shrew, Shakespeare portrays her as an individual needing sympathy, because Bianca is the favourite child of her father.